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Old fashioned, but good for its age

I bought this camera around 6 years ago for about £150 and while technology has moved in and most people would not use this as their main camera, I still keep it around as a handy spare, a backup and for use in situations where I wouldn't necessarily want to take my nicer newer camera such as muddy rainy fields or swimming pools.

This camera only has 2 megapixels which is less than most mobile phone cameras these days! However, even though most of us are used to cameras with up to 10 or 12 megapixels, 2 is actually fine for viewing on a computer screen or for printing in smaller sizes. The pictures won't enlarge very well but will look perfectly fine in small to medium prints, I have on from this camera in 12 x 16 inch frame and it looks fine.

The camera is easy to use, there aren't all that many manual controls but the auto settings are adequate for most situations and surprisingly adaptable. I've taken good (well, I think they're good!) pictures with this camera at night, in bright sunlight, in the rain, indoors and out and even some action shots. The menu screens are easy to navigate and the buttons are clear.

The picture quality is very good for a camera of this age, the colours are vibrant, clear and accurate, the focus is usually very good, although with no manual adjustments its a bit hit and miss.

One downside of this camera is that it uses AA batteries rather than a rechargeable one like most modern cameras. The batteries run down very quickly unless you use more expensive ones designed specifically for digital cameras. I tried using rechargeable AAs but they just didn't seem to have enough juice to keep the camera going for very long and if you're using your camera away from a power point and the recharging dock it can be a real nuisance.

As you can probably pick up this camera very cheaply on ebay or similar by now, I'd say its useful if you need a spare or one that you don't mind too much if it gets battered or damaged. I wouldn't recommend having this as your main camera though as its just not up to the standards we're used to now.